Current News #2

"Wonders of ocean life counted in massive census" CNN.com

In a project expected to be finished by 2010, around 2,000 scientists will be researching a new marine census and eventually write 3 new books about it. By the time this project is done, scientists around the world will have counted a rough estimate of how many creatures are in the ocean, as well as have discovered new species. So far, researchers have discovered the Brittle starfish, who use there 5 arms to pick up food in the current. They have also found thousands of little crustations in the Gulf of Mexico, sometimes 12,000 of them in one square yard. Scientists say that there are many new and rare species in the Atlantic Ocean area between American and Europe, and that many new creatures should be discovered on deep diving trips. One interesting study is about the deep-ocean octopuses from the Antarchtic area, who as the water got colder and turned to ice, swam deeper into the ocean. Because they are in such depths, it is dark enough that these octopuses no longer have ink as a defense. It will be very interesting to hear more about this research, and to see what new species of sea creatures scientists will find in the next few years.